This chapter introduces and argues for the use of blogs in online education. After briefly reviewing the history of blogs, the chapter discusses how blogs may fit in to a concept of e-learning. The chapter argues that blogs may be optimal tools in most e-learning contexts, because of their flexibility and ease of use. Some of the advantages include the fact that other Web 2.0 tools can be easily integrated into blogs; blogs can be purposed for both individual and collective endeavours; they can be used to manage courses; and they accommodate inter-personal, intra-personal, and extra-personal orientations.
The chapter then focuses on the question of how to get students to blog, using the authors’ experience with EAL (English as an Additional Language) students in Japan. It includes advice on ways of encouraging students to blog, using technologies that make blogs more accessible, and personalizing blogs in order to create digital identities, as well as addressing some of the challenges of assessing blogs and offering a realistic approach to plagiarism.
The chapter goes on to discuss the basic features of blogs and the question of blog hosting, identifying the features that are common to all blog platforms and discussing how those features can be used to facilitate student engagement. We also link the concepts of blogging and social networking, as well as provide guidance on negotiating the possible dangers involved in the use of publicly available online services. This chapter concludes with an account of tools that can be used in conjunction with blogs in order to widen the possibilities that blogs offer in optimizing online learning environments.
Contributors
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Lavin
Richard S.
Beaufait
Paul A.
Tomei
Joseph
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blended learning, blogs, digital identities, language learning, personal expression, writing,
Note: The Wikispaces tagging system changed (June 2009). Now in order to display or edit page-specific tags, you need to click on the Page tab at the head of pages in display mode, and select the Details and Tags option.
Blogs and Wikis for Online Engagement and Communication
Table of Contents
Our Delicious/Diigo tag for reference and resource suggestions is collab-bk-blogs-wikis. Thanks in advance for your pointers. -
Chapter Abstracts (entire directory)
final chapter title is:
Weblogs for Online Education
Abstract
Contributors
In the order in which you'd like authors to appearTags
blended learning, blogs, digital identities, language learning, personal expression, writing,
Tags in Use Space-Wide
Created: Jul 1, 2009 7:49 pm
Last revised by: ltdproject on: Feb 13, 2011 5:52 pm (UTC)
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